Teflon
I finally got paid on Friday. I didn't realize they were paying me more for working after midnight.. so I sort of got more than what I was expecting.. which is always a good thing, in terms of money, eh? I'd decided that I'd shop for groceries with the money that I'd earned and then give the rest to my parents (who arrived on Saturday from Dubai) because, well, it's just tradition to present your first earnings to your parents.
It didn't go as planned, obviously. Excited about getting paid such a fat amount, I went out for a friend's birthday to Wokmania, a Chinese/Thai restaurant and blew £10 on the buffet. Totally worth it, partly because of the chocolate fountain. Oh yes. I didn't feel so guilty about spending this time, probably 'cause I'd earned the money myself.
My shift at Subway on Friday night wasn't as glamorous as the previous ones. I had to work downstairs to try and scrub the trays and plastic tubs clean. The stupid baking trays in which they bake their bread are so fucking difficult to clean because of the big fat patches of bread that get stuck to them in the oven. Ever heard of teflon, man? Use non-stick trays, for ease of cleaning.
Then my parents arrived on Saturday evening. Their hotel is two metro stations away from me, on this really spunky road in Jesmond.
Today I took them to town and they shopped. Then we had lunch at Pizza Hut.
While they napped in the afternoon, I went back to my flat and revised a bit of biochemistry from last semester, and outside my room, my flatmates cleaned up like crazy because our flat's scheduled to be inspected on Thursday. I'm quite sure we'll get fined because there's some damage, none of which I could've remotely caused, and we can't cover it up satisfactorily. Drunken stupors are not fun when you get fined heavily for the wreckage.
I took my parents for a walk on the quayside. Showed them the Tyne and Millennium Bridge, and the Sage too. Then we went to a bar called Pitcher and Piano on the bank. The ambience was nice, we sat and chatted about money, Dubai and politics for a while.
Then, against my better judgment, we went to an "Indian Cuisine" restaurant. One of the things we called for was paneer makhani which is supposed to be salty and slightly spicy. They got us some really bad, sweet orange goo with paneer soaked in it. I asked the waiter to spice it up a bit, but it didn't help the sweet taste.. for the simple reason that they'd added sugar to it. Ewwh.
When I was done trying to eat, I asked the manager (who happened to be an Indian) to box the daal and paneer up for us. He hesitated and then ridiculously said he'd put both in the same box. When I said I wanted them in separate boxes, he said they don't do that there(!) That was enough to blow my fuse, and not in the good way. I told him what I thought of his paneer makhani and that I didn't expect it to be sweet. The bastard answered back and said that this is England, not India and they serve "English-style food" here. Disregarding all rules of customer service, he waved the menu card in my face saying that I should read the menu before ordering. I dunno what he meant by that because the menu did not say that the dish would be prepared using sugar and it had a little chilli pepper beside it on the menu card.
On the way out I told him that if he wanted to serve "English-style food", he should set up a fish-and-chips stall outside. And I also told him that he wouldn't have talked to me like that if I were white. Which is quite true, really. Brown people have racist attitudes towards their own race, especially in the presence of the Supreme Persons of White Complexion. To that, he replied that white people don't complain about the food like I did. Yes, you monkey, because they can't be expected to know what Indian food really tastes like.
I was in quite a bad mood after giving him a piece of my mind like that but it's all ok now. I might have some gaajar ka halwaa that my parents got for me.
It didn't go as planned, obviously. Excited about getting paid such a fat amount, I went out for a friend's birthday to Wokmania, a Chinese/Thai restaurant and blew £10 on the buffet. Totally worth it, partly because of the chocolate fountain. Oh yes. I didn't feel so guilty about spending this time, probably 'cause I'd earned the money myself.
My shift at Subway on Friday night wasn't as glamorous as the previous ones. I had to work downstairs to try and scrub the trays and plastic tubs clean. The stupid baking trays in which they bake their bread are so fucking difficult to clean because of the big fat patches of bread that get stuck to them in the oven. Ever heard of teflon, man? Use non-stick trays, for ease of cleaning.
Then my parents arrived on Saturday evening. Their hotel is two metro stations away from me, on this really spunky road in Jesmond.
Today I took them to town and they shopped. Then we had lunch at Pizza Hut.
While they napped in the afternoon, I went back to my flat and revised a bit of biochemistry from last semester, and outside my room, my flatmates cleaned up like crazy because our flat's scheduled to be inspected on Thursday. I'm quite sure we'll get fined because there's some damage, none of which I could've remotely caused, and we can't cover it up satisfactorily. Drunken stupors are not fun when you get fined heavily for the wreckage.
I took my parents for a walk on the quayside. Showed them the Tyne and Millennium Bridge, and the Sage too. Then we went to a bar called Pitcher and Piano on the bank. The ambience was nice, we sat and chatted about money, Dubai and politics for a while.
Then, against my better judgment, we went to an "Indian Cuisine" restaurant. One of the things we called for was paneer makhani which is supposed to be salty and slightly spicy. They got us some really bad, sweet orange goo with paneer soaked in it. I asked the waiter to spice it up a bit, but it didn't help the sweet taste.. for the simple reason that they'd added sugar to it. Ewwh.
When I was done trying to eat, I asked the manager (who happened to be an Indian) to box the daal and paneer up for us. He hesitated and then ridiculously said he'd put both in the same box. When I said I wanted them in separate boxes, he said they don't do that there(!) That was enough to blow my fuse, and not in the good way. I told him what I thought of his paneer makhani and that I didn't expect it to be sweet. The bastard answered back and said that this is England, not India and they serve "English-style food" here. Disregarding all rules of customer service, he waved the menu card in my face saying that I should read the menu before ordering. I dunno what he meant by that because the menu did not say that the dish would be prepared using sugar and it had a little chilli pepper beside it on the menu card.
On the way out I told him that if he wanted to serve "English-style food", he should set up a fish-and-chips stall outside. And I also told him that he wouldn't have talked to me like that if I were white. Which is quite true, really. Brown people have racist attitudes towards their own race, especially in the presence of the Supreme Persons of White Complexion. To that, he replied that white people don't complain about the food like I did. Yes, you monkey, because they can't be expected to know what Indian food really tastes like.
I was in quite a bad mood after giving him a piece of my mind like that but it's all ok now. I might have some gaajar ka halwaa that my parents got for me.